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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



AN ADDIiESS 

DELIVERED BY 

/ 



GOV. JOSEPH A. WEIGHT, 



ON THE 6th DAY OF OCTOBER, 1853, 




AT 



LIVONIA, WASHINGTON COUNTY, INDIANA, 



TO THE 



DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



COMPOSED OF THE 



COUNTIES OF WASHINGTON AND ORANGE. 




INDIANAPOLIS: 

AUSTIN II. BROWN & CO., PRINTERS,. 

1854. 



ADDRESS. 



Fellow-citizens of the counties of Washington and Orange: — 

When the multitude shouted around Napoleon, on his return 
from the battle of Marengo, he exclaimed to a friend — " Bour- 
riemiftj Bourrienne ! do you hear the acclamations still resound- 
ing ? That noise is as sweet to me as the sound of Josephine's 
voice." 

On that occasion the multitude, and the great soldier, were cel- 
ebrating the triumphs of war, the glory of victories obtained under 
bloody banners. But, to-day, we have met to witness the peaceful 
triumphs of Industry; the success of Labor; and the evidences of 
increasing prosperity among the people of this portion of our pros- 
perous State. This is a glorious sight — to see the people of all 
classes vieing with each other in the arts of peace, rather than 
those of war and enmity. These popular assemblages, where the 
people bring into competition various productions of their skill and 
labor, are well calculated to advance the general prosperity of the 
State, and to throw around the labors of the agriculturist and the 
mechanic, an attractive interest. 

The poet has beautifully and correctly said — 

" Would you be 9trong ? Go follow the plow : 

Would you be thoughtful ? Study fields and flowers ; 
Would you be wise ? Take on yourself a vow 
To go to school in Nature's sunny boweis. 
********** 

Fly from the city — nothing there can charm; 
Seek Wisdum, Strength, and Virtue on a farm " 

When we shall be able to invest practical labor with an interest 
and a beauty that will cheer the hearts of wife, husband, and child, 
and thereby give to Home the grace, peace, refinement, and attrac- 
tions that God designed it should possess, we shall have made one 
of the most important steps in the great cause of human progress. 






The wise man has said : "Moreover, the profit of the Earth is for 
all ; the King himself is served by the field.'''' In this country we are* all 
kings, priests, and layman ; citizens and rulers, are all served by the 
field. If, however, we do not first serve the field, it will bring forth 
nothing but briers and thorns. To make the field serve you, you 
must begin by serving the field. Hence, in this work, man has 
much to learn; he must watch the progress and development of 
everything that surrounds him, in order that he may, in the way 
of improvement, accomplish something that will add to his sup- 
port, and increase the amount of his comfort and happiness. 

You have no right to treat your fields as you treat your stock. 
You have no right, by bartering, exchanging, and trafficing with 
your land, to deal with it as you do with your horses, cattle, stocks, 
and moneys. 

The land is the gift of the Almighty, and yourselves, your fami- 
lies, your country, and your race, all have to draw their nourish- 
ment and support from it. It is your duty to leave this earth in 
as good a condition, at least, as it was when you found it. 

The worst of all robberies are those which a man commits on 
his mother earth, when he abuses and destroys the land, either by 
his ignorance, or by his wilful neglect of the means that will im- 
prove and preserve it. It is a duty we owe ourselves, our children, 
our race, not to injure or impoverish the earth, the source of all 
life. We are mere trustees ; and, as such, will be held responsible 
to the Author of all good, for the manner in which we shall treat 
the soil. I have frequently thought that, if we keep on for half a 
century in the same mode of cultivation that some of us have pur- 
sued for the last few years, in some portions of the State, we shall 
not be able to raise a mullen stalk. 

As our lands produce well, we persist in violating well-established 
principles of agricultural science, by raising, year after year, corn 
and hogs — not doubting, for a moment, that the constitution of the 
earth will continue good, and for all time to come, healthy and 
sound. In some parts of the State, we have continued so long in 
this system, that not unfrequently, in the fall, we find some very 
pale, shaking, and weakly looking corn. 

The State of Ohio, (with double the quantity of cultivated land 
that Indiana contains,) does not produce more corn than we do; 
and not as many hogs, by half a million. It was a singular fact 
that, according to the census of 1850, one half of the entire value 
of the live stock in Indiana, consisted of the value of hogs. We 
raise more corn than any other State in the Union, according to 
the quantity of land cultivated: and if we do not change this mode 
of farming, we shall soon be able to appreciate the force of the 
Belgian maxim — "No grass, no stock — No stock no manure — No 
manure no crops." 

There was some excuse for the raising of corn and hogs by our 
people, some years ago, when the hog was the only article that 
would command a good price in the markets. But, with the pros- 
pects before us ; the immense demand for cattle and sheep ; the 



'"demand for wool; the demand for stock on the Pacific coast; the '., 
increasing demand for home consumption ; the improved facilities 
for taking our fine beef-cattle and muttons to the eastern markets, 
in so short a time, without any loss whatever, — all of these con- 
siderations should induce our farmers to enter largely into the 
growing of grasses, with the view of raising cattle, sheep, horses, 
mules, &c. 

It is singular that our farmers have neglected the sheep. In 
some counties of Indiana there are, I believe, more dogs than 
sheep. When in Aew York, some weeks since, I was informed 
that good, fat sheep, were worth from six to ten dollars a head; 
and the demand could not be supplied. There is no prospect of 
supplying the market for wool for years to come. The sheep will 
pay better than any other article raised by the farmer. He never 
dies insolvent — his fleece will always pay his cost. The manure 
of the sheep is better than that of other animals. He destroys 
briers and thorns, and always exerts a good influence on the char- 
acter of vegetation. All wild grass disappears where the sheep 
run. 

We have, in many sections of the State, the very kind of land 
for sheep, from which nothing is now realized ; the broken — the 
hilly lands; yet according to the census of 1850, we have not a 
million of sheep in the State; we ought to have ten times that 
number. The general government possesses a territory of three 
and a quarter millions of square miles, a territory ninety-five times 
as great as Uritian — more than sixteen times as large as France — 
more than twelve times as large as all Germany; yet from these 
countries we import millions of pounds of wool every year. 

Many of the Kentuckians who have settled in various portions 
of Indiana, are looking to their true interest. You will find them 
with their fields of blue grass, their herds of fine cattle ; and raising 
but few hogs, and not much corn. They are not exhausting the 
soil of their farms ; nor over-tasking themselves with labor: and 
yet they are making more money than many others who work 
much harder, and who, from year to year, impoverish their lands 
by raising corn and hogs. 

The holding of land, without improving it, is a public injury. All 
our tracts of land, no matter how large, should, in some way, be 
made productive. The very fact of putting fields down in blue 
grass, creates a demand for labor, and benefits the poor as well as 
the rich. Indiana has, at this day, lying unproductive some mil- 
lions of acres of land, which, if converted into meadows, would be 
sufficient to raise annually, for the market, an immense surplus of 
cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. 



FLAX. 

At the Wayne County Fair in 1851, I called the attention of our 
people to the cultivation of Flax. Subsequent examination, and 



the improvements of the day in machinery, have convinced me 
that we are losing sight of our true interest, in neglecting its 
culture. 

It is one of the most useful and ancient of plants. From it are 
produced linen, paper, linseed oil, and the oil-cake. 

In the days of our fathers, in Indiana, we cultivated it much 
more than we do now. I remember a third of a century ago, in an 
adjoining county, the interest that was taken in the old practice of 
pulling, retting, and scutching the flax ; and among the earlier 
scenes of 1819 and 1820, in the county of Lawrence, where mothers, 
sisters, and wives were engaged at the old fashioned spinning 
wheel, there is one fresh in memory. My father was asking the 
proper time to sow his flax, when a good natured neighbor 
remarked, that they always sowed their flax on good Friday ; but 
one year good Friday came on Sabbath, and that year the flax was 
of no account. 

But the cheapness of cotton and cotton goods, and our rich 
soil, upon which we raise hogs, corn, and cattle in such abundance, 
has turned our people away from this article, except in some por- 
tions of the State, where it is raised for the seed alone. 

The improvements in machinery, the increased consumption of 
linen goods, the adaptation of our soil, and the certainty of the 
demand, at fair prices, are awakening our people to the investiga- 
tion of this subject. 

The whole amount of flax-seed produced in the United States in 
1850, according to the census reports, was 562,312 bushels, and 
more than half of this was the product of North-Western States ; 
yet we imported from abroad, the same year, of flax-seed oil, 
2,818,344 gallons, equal to near two millions of bushels of flax- 
seed, which, at the present eastern prices would amount to more 
than two and a half millions of dollars, a sum equivalent to one- 
half of all the flour exported for the same year. The crop must 
be increased more than two millions of bushels before the home 
demand can be supplied, to say nothing of the shipment^ abroad. 

In the great North-West, the past year, there were probably 
more than two hundred and fifty thousand acres in flax — eighty 
thousand acres in Ohio alone. In the counties of Wayne, Henry, 
and other parts of our State, flax is raised, all, with few exceptions, 
for the seed alone. It is said, that in Delaware county, Ohio, they 
have made a road for five miles out of the straw of the flax. With 
a proper use of the same material many more miles, and a far 
more preferable road, could be made. 

The following exhibit has been furnished me by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, of the imports for the years 1850, 1851, 1852, and 
1853, of the article of flax : 



Exhibit of the quantity and value of certain articles imported in 1850, 
1851, 1852, and 1853. 





» s ^ Linseed or Flax-seed. 


Linseed Oil. 


Flax unmanufac- 
tured. 


£-5 


2 8e 1 

K O o 

s;-a~=> . Bushels. 

25* 


A":ilue. 


Gallons. 


Value. 


Chrt. 


Value. 


1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 


$7,063,184 667,369 
7,748,623 602,0", 4 
7,603,603 • 885,007 
8,897,317 ! 867,5S0 


$324,811 
0,017 

589,749 
633,395 


1,513,117 
2,818,344 
1,583,012 
1,912,533 


$848,672 

1,632,811 

779,054 

1,047,897 


14,474 
21,171 
28,234 
13,553 


$128,917 
176,197 
175,342 
135,684 



If to these we add the other products of flax, such as hosiery, 
articles embroidered, thread, netting, cordage, twine, &c, we will 
make the entire value of our imports of this article, annually, to 

reach the sum of at least $13,000,000 00 

Add for duties, freights, insurance, charges, and 

commissions, 50 per cent. 6,500,000 00 



$19,500,000 00 

The whole cost to our people of the products of flax, annually, 
is not less than from twenty-two to twenty-five millions of dollars. 
More than fifty millions of yards of linen goods were imported 
during the year 1853. 

With these facts before us, the certainty of a full remuneration 
for all the labor we can bestow upon this article, the great im- 
provements in machinery of which we will speak more in detail 
hereafter, and the well known and admitted fact that we have the 
soil and climate to produce the article to almost any extent, the 
prospects before us should urge to prompt action. 

There is no article raised by the farmer, that is more sensitive, 
and that will pay so well for all the labor that may be bestowed 
upon the preparation of the ground. You cannot take too much 
pains in making the earth suitable for the seed. The roots pene- 
trate almost as far downwards, as the flax grows upwards ; hence 
the soils best adapted for its cultivation, are those of a deep free 
loam, — neither too wet, nor too dry ; but such as may be rendered 
fine, very fine, by tilth. We have thousands of acres of such land 
in the valleys bordering upon our rivers and navigable streams, 
in addition to those large bodies of land, heretofore denominated 
Black Swamps, which by exposure to the sun, drainage, and cultiva- 
tion, are made the very best in the State. 

There is high authority for saying, that the best lands for flax, 
are those where water is found at a small depth from the surface. 
This is the case in Zealand, where they raise the finest flax. The 
soil is deep and stiff, with water almost everywhere, at two feet 
below the surface. The large quantities of swamp and wet lands 



8 ■ Qfc 

that we are now draining and ditching, in various portions of the 
State, are admirably adapted for flax. We have of this character 
of land millions of acres in Indiana, which I doubt not would pro- 
duce the very best article. 

The farmer in Ireland has turned his attention to the cultivation 
of flax, for the value of the fibre, and neglected the seed. This 
doubtless arose from the supposed fact, that the two objects were 
incompatible with each other. But subsequent experiments have 
demonstrated that this is a mistake. As early as 1844, the Flax 
Improvement Society of Ireland reported that during the season of 
1844, almost every where through the country, a large portion of 
the crop of seed has been saved, and the flax fibre has been not at 
all deteriorated, where the operation was performed with care. 
Hence it seems that in Ireland, for a number of years five-sixths 
of the seed grown was wasted; while in this country nine-tenths, if 
not more, of the flax fibre was thrown away, and the seed alone 
preserved. It is a little remarkable that in our rich and fertile 
fields, we should cultivate quite extensively the crop of flax, for the 
seed alone, with great profit by the side of wheat and corn, yet in 
the old country, the laborer found a like profit over high rents, 
tithes, and taxes, when raised for the fibre alone. But as it is now 
clearly demonstrated that both may be preserved, it may with pro- 
priety be urged, that the crop will richly pay for all the labor 
bestowed upon its cultivation. 

There is a strong prejudice against the cultivation of this crop, 
arising from the every day repeated story that flax exhausts the 
soil — that it almost wholly impoverishes every inch of land that comes in 
contact ivith it. We cannot tell from whence this view comes. It 
has not been proven by any experiments. It is not found in 
any of the agricultural works of the day. It is not sustained by 
a solitary report made to any of the thousand societies for the 
advancement of labor throughout the land. It is not authenticated 
by any man, be he farmer, professor, or divine, in any address, re- 
port, or trial. But to the contrary, you will find men all over the 
country who will inform you that in repeated experiments, where 
they have cultivated a few acres of flax, in some corner of a field, 
which during the fall following, has been put in wheat : and that 
invariably the very best of wheat was raised on that part of the 
field cultivated in flax, although the remainder of the field was idle 
r at the same time. 

We are not left, however, to conjectures and probabilities on a 
subject of such importance to the cultivators of the soil. The Bel- 
fast Flax Society, to whom this subject was referred, after a most 
careful and minute investigation, made the following report : 

"The principle objection urged against the extended growth of 
flax is, that it exhausts the soil, without returning anything to it. 
But by saving the seed and the seed balls, and feeding upon them, 
the manure thus produced can be returned to the ground, and will 
supply most of the valuable constituents abstracted from it during 
the growth of the plant. The flax shaws from the mill, and the 



putrescent water from the flax pools, should be fermented together 
and returned to the soil. The land would thus have replaced on * 
it almost every particle of matter formerly abstracted by the crops, 
as it has been ascertained beyond a doubt by chemical analysis, 
that the Jibre for which the flax, plant is cultivated, is produced entirely 
from, the atmosphere.'''' 

Dr. Kane, one of the first men of Ireland, in a paper read before 
the Royal Academy of Ireland, fully confirms this report of the 
Flax Society, proving by chemical analysis, that while the woody 
stem of the flax plants, yields a considerable quantity of ash, con- 
sisting of inorganic compounds derived from the soil, the fibre is 
composed solely of organic matters derived from water and the 
atmosphere. 

It is well known that when lands are for many consecutive years 
cultivated in wheat or corn, that they fail to produce full crops, un- 
less they are renewed by manures suitable to the character of the 
soil, and adapted to the crop proposed to be raised. This failure, 
however, does not arise from the fact, that the " humus" or carbo- 
naceous portion of the soil is exhausted, but from the fact that the 
soluble silex which gives the glazed, shining, varnishing covering 
to the stalk or stem, by being so repeatedly extracted, that it is so 
far exhausted that a perfect and well-formed stalk or stem cannot 
be produced — and without a strong, perfect stalk no well developed 
grain need be expected. Professor Way, of the Agricultural Bu- 
reau of England, gives, as the average of sixty-two analyses, 121 
pounds of silex in each acre of wheat, and corn doubtless con- 
sumes more than wheat. It is with a full knowledge of this fact, 
that every prudent farmer, with the view of accumulating sileceous 
matter in a soluble form, turns his attention to the raising of crops 
with unglazed stems, clover always among the first. There is, per- 
haps, another reason for the clover, that for every tun that he takes 
off from his land, he can turn under about half the same, in weight, 
of the roots of the crop to replenish and sustain the soil. Flax 
partakes of this class to a great extent, and certainly exhausts the 
soil less than either corn, wheat, or oats; and, when the stubble is 
ploughed in, supplies the organic element expended in producing 
the crop. 

We have abundance of evidence that the crop is profitable. W. 
Newcomb, of Pittstown, New York, in 1847, estimates his profit 
per acre, at fifty-six dollars. Valentine Simpson, of Preble county, 
Ohio, during the year 1850, produced 105 bushels of seed from a 
little over 5 acres of ground, making a net profit per acre, of six- 
teen dollars on the seed alone. John Pauly, of Warren county, 
Ohio, raised in 1850, sixty-five bushels of seed from five acres of 
ground, where the quantity of seed sown was but three bushels. 
George Brown, of Brownville, New York, realized a net profit of 
twenty dollars per acre, on a crop of 25 acres. Major Kirby, of 
the same place, realized a profit of thirty-three dollars per acre, 
on a crop of 6 acres. Benjamin Akin, of Rensselaer county, New 
York, in 1851, exhibits a net profit of fifty dollars per acre, and 
in these cases the old system of dressing was adopted. 
■ » 



1(1 

1 hail among the favorable signs of the times these very ass em 
blages — these collections of the people all over the land — this 
mingling together of all classes of our people, for the purpose of 
improving their condition at home — thus interchanging views and 
opinions, and making experiments, trials, and tests upon the vari- 
ous branches of industry. 

Let not the charge be laid at our doors that was brought against 
the ancient Romans, which was, that they made a country deso- 
late and, called that a peace. May it be ours to boast that we 
found a wilderness, and converted it into fertile fields; and, that, 
by our policy, we have covered over this continent with a prosper- 
ous, happy, and intelligent people actively engaged in the pursuits 
of life. 

To accomplish this, we should remember that it behooves us to 
do all within our power to give beauty and dignity to the pursuits 
of those who toil, and thus to make labor attractive. At the base 
of the prosperity of any people lies this great principle, make labor 
fashionable at home. Make it an essential part of the primary edu- 
cation of every youth of the land ; and, above all, bring, by every 
means within your reach, the undivided and united action, the 
whole strength, talents, energy, affections, motives, and power of 
the people to bear upon home policy. 

We have been looking in the wrong direction for the sources of 
individual, township, county, State, and even national prosperity. 
Take your stand at the capital of the nation ; contemplate the vast 
machinery of the National Government; see for yourself the grow- 
ing interest which is manifested in the management of national 
affairs — the great expenditures made for the improvement of pub- 
lic buildings, the increase of offices and officers, and the vast in- 
crease of general and specific appropriations of the public money. 
View the crowds that are pressing for Executive favors, great and 
small, and then turn to the States of this Union. What a con- 
trast ! If you were a stranger to our institutions, and were to form 
your opinion from the interest that is taken in the national govern- 
ment, and the almost utter neglect of the State governments, you 
would suppose that our fathers designed that the legislation, fa- 
vors, and strength of the Republic which they founded should be 
centered in the capital at Washington. 

The evidences of the interest manifested by politicians, presses, 
and people, in national affairs, over those of the State, county, or 
township, are before us every day. 

It is a rare sight to witness the people holding primary meetings 
to discuss the merits of the school law — the provisions of the code 
that affects property, character, or life — or the law that governs 
and controls your estate at the time of your death. These are 
minor considerations in comparison with the great questions as to 
who shall fill the vacant seat in the Cabinet at Washington, or dis- 
charge the duties of Collector at some port of entry on the Atlan- 
tic. Public meetings are held all over the country, approving or 
disapproving of the appointment of this or that man to office : but 



r 11 

Courts, Congress, Legislatures, and Governors may do acts that 
seriously affect the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the people, 
and yet such acts do not seem to make even a ripple upon the sur- 
face of public opinion. 

The truth is, we must talk more, work mere, act more, and Uiink 
more on questions relating to home and Home Policy. 

We have, at home, many subjects of vast interest that must not 
be neglected, and this is a proper and legitimate occasion to call 
your attention to some of them. 

The wealth of an agricultural State, like ours, is not found alone 
in rich and productive lands. We have other elements. Our 
mineral wealth, and our manufacturing wealth, are parts of the 
great resources of the State ; and no community has discharged 
the duties which it owes to itself, until these great elements of 
wealth have been developed and rendered available, under the 
combined action of the capital and labor of the country. 

Indiana, this day, is not selling two millions of bushels of coal 
per annum. She should sell twenty millions. We can furnish, at 
the Balize, the government vessels and the steamers of the world 
with coal, at a cost of three dollars a tun for carriage. The rock 
and the marble are all around us, suitable to build the custom 
house at New Orleans ; and if these materials were used for that 
purpose, thousands of dollars would be saved to the treasury of 
the nation. 

Your pig iron is taken from Vermillion and Greene counties, 
manufactured abroad, and brought back to you, and sold at high 
prices. The very stones, now almost in sight of us, are taken from 
the rich quarries of Orange and Martin, polished by eastern labor, 
and then returned and sold to you as Turkish oil stones. Walnut 
knots, taken from our forests, are, by the labor of others, polished 
and used in making the most valuable furniture. The timber upon 
our hills and in our valleys affords superior varieties for the build- 
ing of steamers for rivers or oceans. Indiana has water power 
equal to that of Connecticut or the Merrimac, though scarcely 
known beyond the sound of the falling waters. Yet, thus far in 
our history, no effort which has been made has succeeded in laying 
fairly before the capital and labor of the world these great elements 
of our wealth ; and at this day less is known abroad of the re- 
sources of Indiana, than of those of any other State of the confede- 
racy. 

If your representatives at Indianapolis will not send out competent 
and scientific men to explore our hills and valleys, and Jay bare the 
now concealed wealth, consisting of iron, coal, salt, rock, &c, you 
must imitate the example of the good people of Evansville, who, I 
am informed, some time since, sent out at their own expense the 
practical geologist, David Dale Owen, on a visit to the county of 
Greene, to examine the rich iron mines of that county. 

The old world manufactured for the new for a hundred years. 
New England has manufactured for us for nearly half a century. 



12 

A change must take place. We must, if we pursue our true inter- 
ests, engage in manufacturing articles, not only for home use, but 
for exportation. 

Indiana is one of the central States of the Union, with advan- 
tages equal if not superior to those of her sister States. She is in 
the very heart of what is destined to be a great agricultural and 
manufacturing region — a region known as the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi — the population of which, if they faithfully pursue a true 
home policy, will soon be able, not only to feed, but also to clothe, 
Old as well as New England. 

But turn in another direction. Look at our township, county, 
and State governments ; and you will find that they are overshad- 
owed, and almost lost sight of, in the unceasing contests growing 
out of national subjects. We shall never arrive at that form of 
government so much desired by our fathers, until these questions, 
at home, are made the subjects of engrossing interest. 

By the form and structure of our government, the little local 
communities at home, from school districts to townships, counties, 
and State, are all made, as it were, part and parcel of the ma- 
chinery that moves and regulates the action of our republic. 

Visit that township, district, city, or county, where the citizens 
are alive to its internal management, and you will find a people 
prepared to make a step forward in any movement that is made to 
better the condition of society. Have you not noticed, in our own 
State, that, in counties where there are even a few enterprizing, 
active men, who take an interest in organizing schools, and in pro- 
moting other local interests, that those counties are always the 
foremost in every movement that elevates the character of the 
people? And you have no doubt noticed the reverse — that, in 
those counties where the engrossing subjects of agitation are those 
connected with national policy, and where State policy is lost sight 
of, the people are invariably the last to follow in any such work. 
It is idle to expect any people to make any permanent advances, 
in the way of improvement, where there is an entire neglect of 
their local and Home Policy. 

I call it local and Home Policy. I mean by this, that these sub- 
jects enter into and form the very heart, life, and strength of the 
body politic. 

In a government like ours, scattered over such an extent of ter- 
ritory, embracing such a variety of interests, combining every kind 
of character and people, and with such a growing diversity of ma- 
terials, how is it possible that we can preserve our institutions, if 
there shall continue to be, as there has been, a ruinous neglect of 
what I denominate the local and Home Policy. 

Can you expect the heart of this republic to be free from corrup- 
tion and fraud, when the little streams and rivulets that nourish 
that heart are neglected and become impure ? The fountain heads 
and springs of this nation — the people of the several States, in 
their primary organizations, in their local policy, their laws, cus- 



13 

toms, and manners — are the sources from which the national gov- 
ernment must derive, politically, whatever of virtue, or wisdom, or 
strength it may possess. 

When we shall live up to our privileges as members of our 
happy form of State government, and discharge our whole duty in 
the small circle in which we move ; when we shall adapt our laws 
and institutions, which affect us every day in all the relations of 
life, and in all our intercourse with each other, so as to make each 
man feel that upon him rests a portion of the responsibilities of 
life ; when we shall come up to that full standard of State pride, 
State ambition, State ?'ighls, that our forefathers designed we should 
occupy, it will make but little difference what three hundred men 
at Washington do, or whether this or that act of Congress shall 
pass. The top may tremble and agitate, but the base will be immovable — 
the foundation ivill be secure. 

For the success which has attended our progress as a nation, we 
are indebted, not only to the power and influence of our laws and 
form of government; but, also, to the number of true, resolute, 
thinking, and intelligent men, found in every part of the confederacy 
— and, moreover, for our success, we are materially indebted to 
the existence of the great truth that, under our government, man, 
in Ins individual capacity, is entrusted with rights and privileges 
which, when properly used, enable him to aid in advancing the 
welfare of the community in which he lives. 

That community where the individual man is respected and 
admired — or the reverse— on account of his conduct alone, exhibits 
a strict regard for the observance of every principle that elevates 
the man, the masses, their laws, customs, &c. Precisely in pro- 
portion as the people of any community lose sight of these 
principles, and the central influence takes their place, will such 
community degenerate. 

Your community is not declining, if the press and people notice 
and observe the charities and benevolence that belong to man, as 
much as they do the kindness and sympathies of associations. Nor 
is the community going backward when individual actions are left 
free to perfect the improvements of the country without looking to 
the aid of laws and government to press them forward. 

If we shall keep on in the movement we have been making for 
the last half century, in destroying the individuality principle, in 
the destruction of all lines of State policy and local interests, we 
shall not be able, after the lapse of a short time, to build a mill, 
construct a bridge, or erect a temple, without the help of associa- 
tions, or governmental aid. The interests of the district, the 
township, the county, and the State will be neglected ; but the 
general government will continue to increase in power, in influence 
and in the number of its offices. 

The age is one of promise. The world is full of hope. Improve- 
ments are making in every thing that tends to lessen the labor of 
man, and to advance his comfort and happiness. 

But, there .are other influences at work in the nation. Events 



14 

are taking place around us, and before our eyes scenes are trans- 
piring, to which we cannot, dare not, be insensible, and which 
loudly demand our attention. 

A quarter of a century ago, Tobias Watkins, who held a small 
office in one of the departments at Washington, was charged with 
a fraud, involving a sum of less than four thousand dollars ; and 
upon this single instance of faithlessness in a public officer, the 
whole people of the Republic were aroused, and thrown into a 
state of excitement. But now, in these days, millions are charged 
to be fraudulently obtained from your treasury — committees are 
sitting in the vacation of your National Legislature, to ferret out 
the truth — your President asks for an additional criminal code 
against bribery and corruption — and the public press, politicians, 
and people, seem to feel not half so much interest in the result of 
these investigations and recommendations, as they do in knowing 
who shall be a minister abroad, the collector of customs at some 
port, or the postmaster at some village or cross roads. 

Fifty-one years ago, Mr. Jefferson, in writing to his friend Albert 
Gallatin, on the subject of making appropriations for a light-house, 
said, "The utility of the thing has sanctioned the infraction. But, 
if on that infraction we build a second ; on a third, &c, any one 
of the powers in the constitution may be made to comprehend 
every power of government." 

In our day, it seems that he who takes the greatest interest in 
obtaining the expenditure of millions by the general government, 
even for local objects, is to be regarded as the successful states- 
man, and most worthy of popular applause. 

A change must take place. The public mind, and the influence 
of popular opinion in communities, States, and the nation, must, 
be turned in another direction. The prospect brightens, and good 
results will follow these agricultural and mechanical exhibitions, 
now being held all over the country. One fourth of the population 
of our own State, will attend the State or County Fairs, during the 
present year; and five thousand volumes of agricultural and 
mechanical works will be distributed among the people. We are 
beginning to cultivate the roots, and not the tops. May we con- 
tinue to press forward in this work. May we make the family 
government, the school, the farm, the church, the shop, the labora- 
tories of future greatness. We must educate our sons to be 
farmers, artisans, architects, engineers, geologists, in a word, prac- 
tical men. Their eyes must be turned from Washington to the 
State, county, township, district, home. This is true patriotism; 
and the only patriotism that will save the nation. 

With a territory stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
with sea-coasts more than five thousand miles in extent, we have ' 
almost all varieties of soil, climate, and productions ; and conse- 
quently we have, within our boundaries, citizens of every kind of 
pursuit and occupation. The world never witnessed such a busy, 
bustling, energetic crowd of human beings, scattered over a terri- 
tory so vast, and living under a government supported by their own 



15 

will. Farmers and planters, mechanics and manufacturers, mer- 
chants and traders, miners of iron, and gold, and silver, and cop- 
per, and coal ; men of labor, and industry, engaged in business in 
town and country, on the oceans of the world, and on our lakes 
and rivers — all of these while they constitute the strength of the 
confederacy, have, in their various pursuits, their own peculiar cus- 
toms, habits, manners and tastes ; yet their constitutions and their 
laws protect their rights, individually, and recognize their political 
equality. In this consists the strength and the beauty of our form 
of Government. 

We require, we must have the full grown policy of each of these 
pursuits, with the thousands of others that will naturally arise, in 
a government whose interests are so diversified as ours ; each of 
these should be left free to arive at full perfection, without the in- 
fluences of a great overshadowing, central, consolidated govern- 
ment. We want no Rome, no Paris ; but we should seek to make 
our great center in each State, county, township, district, and 
Home. 



APPENDIX. 



Since the delivery of the foregoing address, before the Agricultu- 
ral meeting at Livonia, I have received the following letter from 
Thomas J\jmber, Jr., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Kimber is 
a gentleman who has traveled extensively in Europe, for the pur- 
pose of acquiring information of the best modes of raising and 
manufacturing flax ; and he is now engaged in the manufacture of 
that article, as one of the firm of the American Linen Company. 

Lafayette, Ind., Ilth Mo. [Nov.] 21, 1853. 
To the Hon. Oov. Joseph A. Wright, 

President of the State Board of Agriculture : 

"Esteemed Friend : I have received with much pleasure, the Report you were so kind as to send 
me, of the proceedings 01 the State Board of Agriculture for tkeyear 1852. I avail myself of this 
occasion to call your attention more earnestly to one subject, intimately connected with your 
agricultural indusiry, and highly important to the interests of the Staie of Indiana, as well as to 
those of the whole Northern section of our country. 1 allude to the question of the proper culture, 
preparation, and manufacture of Flax. 

" I am aware that this subject has claimed somewhat of your notice, and that you alluded to 
it forcibly in an address recently at Livonia, before the District Agricultuial Society. 

'"But having spent a great portion of my time, lor several years past, in investigating the vari- 
ous processes ot the Flax culture and manufacture, both in Great Britain and on the continent of 
Europe ; as well as in the endeavor, since mv return, to introduce on a large scale, the manufacture 
of Linens, and the growth of Flax in this country, perhaps it would not be uninteresting to you to 
hear some of the results of thrse enquiries and exertions. 

•• Firoing that the importations for ihe United Sia:es of Linen goof's exceeded fifty millions of 
yards annually ; and that even the universal home manufacture of flax which was customary 
among our ancestors — and which though small in deiail, was yet great in the aggregate — had al- 
most entirely disappeared, the question naturally arose, how this great change had been brought 
about. So far as the latter subject was concerned it was at once evident that in all purposes of 
ordinary household use, cotton had driven flax from the field ; and that the farmer had found it 
cheaper io buy calico and corduroy, and to grow wheat and corn, than to employ his time in spin- 
ning and weaving linen fabrics for his household consumption. 

" As regards the vast increase of importations ol linens, it was to be attributed to the growing 
wealth and luxury of our country, more especially in the great cities, which are springing up with 
magical rapidity to the very shores of the far off Pacific ; and which gather around them all the 
refinements of an older civilization. 

j" So much for the vast and greaily increasing demand ; as to the supply, it became evident that 
this was maintained With unfailing and equally ra ( id increase, by the introduction of steam ma- 
chinery in every part of the process of the linen maufaeiure, which, until recently, was altogether 
the result of hand labor. 

I therefoie determined to make a vigorous effort among our capitalists to establish this profitable 
manufacture in this country ; and with Ihe aid of the firm of which 1 was a member, (Hacker, 
Lea, & Co., of Philadelphia,; succeeded in interesting some of our most influential eastern friends 
in the enterprise, and in establishing a lar^e manuf ctuiing company at Fall Kiver, Mass., under 
the title of the American Linen Company, This company is incorporated with a capital of $500,- 
000, and of thissum $350,000 have been already paid in, and invested in buildings, machinery, and 
other preparations. 

3 



18 

" Having said thus much, as briefly as possible, by way of explanation, and in order to detach 
entirely this enterprise from all c >nnection with the Flax Cotton movements of the dav, in which 
w« are not at all interested and have no confidence, I may poceed to the more immediate object 
of troubling you with this communication, 

" We expect to consume in the en* jing twelve months, over six hundred and fifty tuns of Flax 
fibre (1,300,000 lbs.) an I when in full operation, siall consume annually over one thousand tuns, 
or two millions of pounds. Bei nr about commencing operations, we have already been obliged 
to import from abroad over one hundred iuns, at an expense of more than $30,000. 

'• Now in passing through your State and that of Ohio in company with my friend, Chas, Harts- 
horne, who has also p iid considerable attention, abroad and at home, to ihe flax culture, we have 
found that many tho isanls of a^res of flax are grown for the seed al me ; the stalk and its fibre 
being entirely wasted and ihrown away. And. my object in addressing you is to ask your earnest 
attention to mis great and importaut err. >r, in the agricultural management of this part of the 
country. 

'• It seems to me that such exertions on your part can be appealed to no less in your position as 
President of the A rricultural B >ard, than as G-overnor of the State of Indiana -for the subject is 
of eqoal importance in its bearfligs on the commercial, as on the agricultural interests of our coun . 
try, and of every portion thereof. 

" We have found that the farmer, on an average, obtains nbout ten bushels of flaxseed to the 
acre, which has yielded him from 90 cents to 81 25 per bushel, and often a much less price. Now 
in the first place this is hardly a half crop of the seed. In Hivat Britain and Belgium they obtain 
from 20 to 23 bushels of the seed, besides saving t ie fibre. The secret lies in the proper prepara- 
tion of the ground, before sowing the seed. 

" If the farmer would give the land a F.U 1 ploughing, (it is not too late to do it yet,) and leaving 
it over the winter to mellow, then pi nigh it deeply again m the spring, reducing it as fine as pos- 
sible without too much labor, he would, on good ground, average 20 bushels of seed to the acre. 
The flax plant is peculiarly sensitive to such attentions, and amply repays them; the roots striking 
downwards almost as deep and straight, where tlie ground is open and mellow, as the stalk shoots 
upward. It is not too much to say that, taking into considerati >n the incre >sed seed as well as 
the fibre, every dollar s > spent in ploughing and pulverizing the ground would yield ten-fold in the 
harvest gathered. 

'• The land best suited for flax is an open, rich loam, with a ciay subsoil if possiblj. In the next 
place for the fibre : If the farmer would sow 2 bushels or 2>£ to the acre, on rich gr >und so prepar-d, 
he would, whi e obtaining 20 bushels of seed, als > obtain two tuns to two and a half tuns of flax 
straw per acre At present, with the poor preparation and thin sowing, not over one or one and 
a quarter tuns are obtained on an average. Every tun of straw yields three hundred pounds of flax 
fibre, so that he would then obtain, if he chose to roi and prepare it. as was done in the days of our 
grandfathers, about six hundred or six hundred and fifty pounds per acre of flax fibre rotted and 
scutched. For this fibre we would gladly contract for two years to come, at the rate of VS.% to 15 
cents a pound ($250 to 8300 per tun) accotding to quality. It costs us this price, cash, to import 
it, and we should much prefer paying it to our own industry. If, however, the farmers preferred 
to sell the straw, aid would grow and prepare it as above, there are parties who would purchase 
such straw so grown and prepared, of good length and not injured in the rippling, oi remov ng the 
seed, at the rate of five do Las a tun for the straw. This woud give, by the slight ad lition of Fall 
ploughing, enriching, if the land needs it, and, after sowing, a light brush harrowing or rolling, a 
great increase of profit to the larm;r. He could then get, say 

20 bushels of seed at $1 00 $21 00 

2 tuns of straw at $5 00 10 00 

Gross returns per acre 830 00 

"Even if he sod his straw at the above price. If he occupied his leisure hours, and ihose of his 
family, in rotting and scutching the straw, he would obtain vastly more, by selling ihe fibre at 
12% cents a pound. 

"That these are no chimerical figures, I now lay before you, as evidence, the first agricultural 
authorities in Great Britain and in Europe. And I appeal to your well known philanthropical 
disposition, to lend your influence to all proper endeavors to promote and improve this great indus- 
trial interest. We might have flax as cheap as cotton, and linen goods nearly as cheap as cotton 
goods, if the exertions of the farmers would second the improvements of machinery. 

"Yours, very respectfully, 

"THOMAS KIMBER, Jr." 

The foregoing letter contains many suggestions which are worthy 
of the attention of the Indiana farmer. Accompanying the letter, 
I received from Mr. Kimber, samples of Russian, Irish, and 
American flax, which may be seen in the Agricultural Room, at 
the State House. 

In connection with this subject, I deem it proper to publish a 
diagram of the machinery used for the purpose of separating the 
flax from the stalk ; together with a description of the improve- 
ment and process. The description is from the pen of John 
Wilson, a very distinguished gentleman, who is President of the 
Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, and who attended the 



/ 



19 

Chrystal Palace, at ~New York, as one of the commissioners from 
England. 

It sec ins that the merit of practically employing heated water 
for the purpose of preparing the flax in a short time, belongs to 
Mr. Slienck, an American, who obtained a patent for his process, 
in 1840. Improvements were made upon Mr. Shenck's mode, by 
Mr. Watt's ; and afterwards the principle was further improved by 
Mr. Buchanan. In reference to this latest improvement, Mr. Wil- 
son says : — 

" In this the steeping is effected by repeated immersions in a tank of heated water, arrangements 
being made by which the temperature is never allowed to exceed a eenain degree — a point of great 
importance, both as regards the abstraction of the azotized extractive matter, and also tlie 
quality of fibre produced. It is well known that albuminous solutions, containing even a very 
small proportion ofalbnmen (I in 1000) coaeulate at atemperature of 180 degrees, and then become 
insoluble; and it is always considered that fibre is more or less injured ifexposed beyond a certain 
high temperature. These two importani points have been taken advantage of in Buchanan's pro- 
( ess ; the temperature of the steep liquor is kept within a eenain range of temperature, and the 
operation, both as regards time and produce, more satisfactorily performed. The process is quite 
automatic, thus saving labor and the risks consequent upon carelessness; and the machanical 
arrangements by which it is effected, are very simple and inexpensive. The accompanying 
diagram, will, 1 hope, make the process clearly understood. The flax straw is placed in an open 
vessel (No :1) termed the steeping vat, having a false bottom (i); a boiler (No. 1) generates the 
steam required ; and between these two is placed a suitab e vessel (No. 2), the condenstr, of about 
the same capacity as No. 3, and communicating with that by the hot-water pipe (6), and with the 
boiler by the steam pipe (a). This center vessel or condensing chamber is filled with water from 
the ci-ter,i (No. 5), and steam is then blownin from the boiler. "When the latent heat of the steam 
is absorbed, and condensation no longer takes place, the hot water is driven over into the steeping 
vat, and completely immerses its contents. 'I he overflow pipe (c) then conveys a portiou into 
the bucket (No. 4), which, overpowering the balance weights [gg) descends, drawing the chain 
(ee), which, being attached to the pullies (ff) fixed on to the cock> of the steam pipe (a), and of the 
condensing pipe (A), reverses their action by cutting off the steam and turning on a charge of cold 
water into the condenser. The steam in No. 2 is then rapidly condensed, and the liquor drawn 
back from the steep vat into whicb it had previously been forced. This completes the operation 
of immersion, which recommences immediately :— for as soon as the overflow bucket (No. 4) has 
reached a certain point in its descent, it strikes against a pin, having a screw adjustment, which 
causes the valve (rf) at the bottom to open and discharge its contents into the discharge pipe 
(No. C). The bucket, then relieved of its load, resumes its original position, the balance weights 
act on the pullies (ff), which auain reverse the cocks, cutting off the cold water sparge, and 
in niiigon the steam to No. 2. This is repeated as often as may be required. 

•■ So fir as the experiments havegone.it has been found that by ten such immersions the whole of 
the coloring nutter of the flax has been removed. These in practice would not occupy more 
than three or four hours." 



20 




If our farmers will go into the cultivation of Flax, I have no 
doubt that the machines described by Mr. Wilson will spring up all 
over the country ; and the farmer, in addition to his crop of seed, 
will receive for his flax straw as much per tun as he now does for 
his hay. Responsible persons in Indiana will now contract for any 
quantity of dressed flax, properly prepared, at $250 per tun; and 
three acres, well cultivated, should produce a tun of flax ready for 
the bale. 

It does seem to me that $250 a tun for dressed flax, and even a 
higher price if the quality will warrant it, together with the value 
of the seed, for which we have heretofore raised it, ought surely to 
make flax one of the most profitable crops of our State. 



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